2012 Summer Olympics Recap: Day 13 — US Wins 5 Gold Medals

The United States won nine medals, including five golds, to take a commanding lead in the overall medal count at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on Thursday. Here’s a recap of the day’s highlights:

Carli Lloyd scored twice as the US women’s soccer team beat Japan, 2-1, to win the gold medal in front of 80,203 at Wembley Stadium. The victory avenged the Americans’ loss to the Japanese team at the Women’s World Cup last summer. Canada beat France, 1-0, to win the bronze medal.

On the track, Usain Bolt of Jamaica became the first sprinter to win the 100- and 200- meters in consecutive Olympics. Bolt led a Jamaican sweep of the 200, with countrymen Yohan Blake and Warren Weir taking silver and bronze respectively. Elsewhere on the track, Kenya’s David Rudisha broke his own world record while winning the gold medal in the 800-meters in a time of 1 minute, 40.91 seconds.

American Ashton Eaton won the gold medal in the decathlon, and teammate Trey Hardee earned silver, as the US won two decathlon medals in the same Olympics for the first time since Milt Campbell and Rafer Johnson did so in 1956. American jumper Christian Taylor won gold in the men’s triple jump, outdistancing his teammate Will Claye, who earned silver, and Fabrizio Donato of Italy, who took the bronze.

Maggie Steffens scored five goals and the United States beat Spain, 8-5, to win its first Olympic gold medal in women’s water polo. Australia won the bronze by beating Hungary, 13-11.

Other US medalists were Claressa Shields, who won the first US women’s boxing gold medal in Olympic history, swimmer Haley Anderson, who claimed the silver medal in the women’s 10-km swim, and Terrence Jennings, who earned bronze in the men’s featherweight division of the taekwondo competiton.

In other results, the US women’s volleyball team beat South Korea in straight sets to reach a gold medal rematch with Brazil, the country that beat them in the 2008 Olympic finale in Beijing.